[Multiple solitary lesions in deep white matter in the early stage of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A case report].

A 56-year-old housewife was admitted to our hospital because of involuntary movement on her left arm. Her neurological examination on admission showed mild weakness of her left arm and cerebellar ataxia. She developed periodic synchronous discharge on electroencephalogram and her cerebrospinal fluid revealed elevated level of neuron-specific enolase. Thereafter she developed dementia, followed by apallic state and diagnosed as having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Interestingly, her MRI on admission revealed multiple solitary lesions in deep cerebral white matter, which were detected as high signal intensity by T2 weighed image. A few months later, these lesions tended to extend, and finally fused around the lateral ventricle in parallel with remarkable cortical atrophy. We excluded other diseases such as cerebrovascular disorders. Finally, we concluded the white matter change seen from early stage in this case may be the lesion associated with CJD, and the CJD case with early white matter changes has been seldomely described.